The Witch's Quest

by Michele Hauf

  “This will work,” she said.

  Standing up on her tiptoes, she kissed him. It was a long, lingering kiss that said so many things he wanted to hear but dared not put into thought. Hope and want and desire. Better to feel it than have it spoken. Yes?

  Could he allow himself to want the girl? He’d stayed in the casino last night because he’d been miffed at her rejection, but he’d also felt he was pushing her too quickly into something she didn’t want. He was supposed to protect the woman. But he knew she didn’t need protection.

  Part of him wished she could need him a little bit. How to win over a woman who was her own hero?

  Ending the kiss, she asked, “You good?”

  “Yes, of course. But, uh...” He swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “Better wipe that one off so the mermaid kiss will stick. A shame, though. Your kisses are something a guy wants to keep for much longer.”

  “I promise you another one after you’ve secured the prize.” A gentle punch to his shoulder sealed her word. With a wink, she tugged at the rope, making a show of checking the secure knots. She patted her gray-and-black-camo coat pocket. “Got the vial and sticking paper right here. Soon as you’ve been deflowered, I’m moving in. I think I should put a protection spell on you.”

  “Not a good idea. I want the mermaid to kiss me, not be repelled.”

  “Right. As soon as you get that kiss...”

  “I’m getting another one from you.” He winked at her and she almost punched him again, but withdrew and instead bowed her head, smiling.

  Yeah, she liked him.

  “You might want to stand by to tug me up in case the mermaid’s kiss disorients me,” he suggested. “Never been kissed by a mermaid before, but I suspect it’s not as delicious as yours.”

  “There you go being a sweetie again. It’s gotta taste like fish, right?”

  “I hate fish.”

  “We’ll dine on veggies and cake later to celebrate.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” He clapped his hands together and nodded with decisiveness. No more stalling. Time to either sink or swim. “Let’s do this!”

  Kelyn knelt at the edge of the stone tongue and gave a look to Valor so she stepped back about ten feet, giving him space. Good call. Should the mermaid see her, the creature might be frightened away.

  He lay on his stomach and reached down, but his fingers barely touched the surface so he shoved himself forward until he could cup the cool water in his palms. The granite he lay on smelled like old civilizations. The sea smelled rich and steeped with ages of secrets only dead sailors could tell. He wasn’t sure how to call up a mermaid, and Valor had no clue, either. Probably something they should have researched before coming out here.

  He’d wing it. Wingless as he was.

  Searching the metallic green surface, Kelyn could not see far into the depths. Murky waters. That did not seem to bode well. What had Valor cracked about him getting this kiss? Deflowered? Yikes, this would be the first time he’d ever kissed a fish.

  But he was approaching this the wrong way. He needed to remain positive. The kiss was another ingredient to check off the list. And then he’d be that much closer to getting back his wings.

  Stirring his fingers in the waters, he closed his eyes and focused on aligning himself with the sea and the creatures within. As faery he had an intimate connection to nature and all her inhabitants. He could tap into a hummingbird’s heartbeat and direct it to the best source for food. He could race an elk through the forest and oftentimes win. He could count a bird’s chirps and determine whether it was a warning or a greeting.

  And he could call a mermaid to kiss him if he desired.

  That was the key. He had to want it and believe it was possible.

  Feeling the ancient memories of the waters bestill him and calm his heartbeat, Kelyn hummed from the base of his throat, tapping into the Celtic rhythms he had never known, but that had been imprinted on his soul through the ages as a collective message from the universe. He did believe in mermaids. He believed in every myth about which the humans liked to tell stories. They were all real.

  He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, humming, stirring the waters with his fingertips, but he forgot the witch standing nearby and didn’t notice the sun glimmer on the horizon with a wink before a fine mist began to wet his hair and back.

  A bubble rose and broke the water’s surface. And then another, and another.

  He stretched his fingers through the water, and when the cool, wet hand clasped his, Kelyn cursed quietly. In for the ride, he reminded himself. No matter the slimy scales that abraded his skin. He leaned forward more until his entire chest hung over the waters. He could feel the rope tug against the rock and felt secure, so he inched forward a bit more.

  The mermaid’s head rose, pale green hair spreading across the surface and forming liquid arabesques about her. Within the seaweed-like hair, bubbles formed, and Kelyn saw a tiny fish bob up briefly within the strands. She emerged to her nose, which was flat and gilled on both sides instead of sporting human-like nostrils. At her cheeks gills also flapped. Otherwise, she looked quite human, save for the green hair.

  “Hello, pretty,” he offered as charmingly as possible.

  Her head rose a little more and her mouth curled into a smile. It was a soft mouth, shaded green as her olive skin but with a tint of rose to it. She tilted her head, brushing it against his open palm like a cat seeking a nuzzle. Kelyn slipped a heavy ribbon of her hair over...well, she didn’t have an ear that he could see, so he dropped the hair and offered her a smile.

  He wasn’t sure if she could speak his language, so he didn’t think conversation would be important. Instead he softened his gaze on her and winked.

  The mermaid chirred out a giggly sound and behind her, her caudal tail fin slapped the water in a bejeweled display of opalescent scales. Water splattered Kelyn’s face, but he laughed as a means to calm his nervous jitters.

  “Your tail is beautiful,” he said. “As are you.”

  And then he leaned forward even more, daring to close his eyes and hope upon hope she would understand he wanted a kiss. For ages, mermaids had been known to seduce sailors into kissing them, and then they’d drag them to their deaths at the bottom of the sea.

  He’d have to be cautious he didn’t become another statistic to fortify the legend.

  When a wetness touched his forehead, Kelyn realized she’d touched her forehead to his. Her flesh was soft and slimy, exactly like a fish. And then it happened. Her mouth landed on his in a cold, yet sweetly exotic touch that shivered through his system like nothing he’d felt before. It wasn’t as intimately surprising as the faery vampire’s bite had been, but it did sharpen his senses to the salty taste on her mouth. She slid her webbed hands over his shoulders, pulling him closer to her until his face was in the water, lips still kissing hers, and then...

  He didn’t so much drop into the water as get tugged from the granite ledge like a sack of valuable pearls the greedy bitch wanted for herself.

  The harness squeezed his chest as the rope resisted. Kelyn felt the mermaid wrap her arms tightly about his shoulders as the murky water engulfed him. His feet kicked at something slippery. Her tail felt as though it had wrapped about his shins. And then the rope gave a little more.

  And a little more.

  And soon it was as if the rope might have snapped or come untied, for the mermaid swam swiftly downward, taking him along. The kiss broken, he struggled to shuck off her hold about his shoulders. A shout released his air. Water bubbled about him, and her tail lashed roughly at his legs, beating at them wickedly.

  Suddenly he was jerked out of her grasp. Snapped upward by a force about his chest, he realized the rope was still secure. Kelyn stretched his arms, aiming for the fading glimmer of the surface. His fey weight buoyed him s
wiftly upward.

  As he ascended, the mermaid circled him, swishing her tail at his face. The scaled fins cut his skin and he struggled to push away the menacing weapon. It was as if a jellyfish were stinging him. He cried out, releasing his last gasp of breath as he surfaced. Thank goodness for his lightweight faery bones!

  Yet, from below, the mermaid pushed up on the soles of his boots, rocketing him out of the water to land on the rocky outcrop right beside the boulder that had apparently rolled to the edge.

  Kelyn landed on his stomach, grunting at the incredible pain of his body colliding with the solid surface. He rolled to his back and splayed out his arms, gasping for redeeming air and sputtering up the foul water.

  “Wait! Don’t spit.” Valor’s voice sounded above him. “Remember the plan. Let me take care of this.”

  The plan. She’d devised a simple way to retrieve the kiss. Using a piece of rice paper that she now pressed to his mouth, she carefully peeled it away and held it up to study. Scales glinted on the transparent paper. “Got it!” She curled the paper and stuffed it in a glass vial, then stood. “I’m going to put this in the car so I don’t lose hold of it. Be right back!”

  “Sure.” Kelyn sputtered more water. Man, the sea did not taste good. “You do that. Leave the half-drowned faery here to die!”

  Then he laughed a wet and weary laugh. He’d survived that challenge. He wasn’t going to die and end up buried in some rotting shell of a ship filled with hundreds of other unlucky souls. Davy Jones had lost this one. How’s that for a guy who had never taken a swimming lesson?

  Pushing the hair from his eyes, he winced as his fingers traced the cuts marking his forehead and cheeks. He would heal, but not as quickly as usual.

  The crunching of stone and the sudden wobble of the boulder beside him alerted Kelyn. Accompanied by a rush of sudden wind and rains from above, the boulder wobbled...

  Tilted forward...

  And dropped into the water, breaking off the granite ledge as it did so.

  The rock fell away from under Kelyn’s legs. Frantically, he shuffled backward. Then he slapped a hand to the harness and the rope knotted so expertly by Valor.

  “Shit.”

  Chapter 15

  Pulled with great force into the depths by the heavy boulder, Kelyn focused his intent on the rope in hopes of severing it with sheer strength. Ah! He had no sigils to access his former strength. Water rushed into his mouth, nose and ears. The only way out of this was to swim to the boulder and shimmy the rope from around it.

  And that would prove much harder than expected as the flap of a mermaid’s tail brushed his cheek and his ichor spilled out into the water.

  * * *

  Valor ran from the Jeep toward the ledge. She’d heard the crushing sound of rock breaking. And the abruptly muffled yelp of one very soaked and defeated faery. She stopped where the granite had broken and crumbled into the sea, stepping back to avoid the loose shards. She should have untied Kelyn immediately. Fool!

  Kneeling at the rough stone edge, she studied the green water. The surface was remarkably smooth and calm. He must be quite far down already. She wasn’t sure if faeries could breathe underwater as vampires could. Would he be able to release himself from the harness? She slapped a hand to her pocket and palmed the blade. It would serve no good in her hand.

  What could she do to help? She was no swimmer. And she did not practice water magic. Her expertise was air magic.

  “Maybe...” Air could be used as a tool.

  Standing, she planted her feet squarely and bowed her head to focus her energies. Spreading out her fingers, she slowly raised her arms as she chanted a powerful spell to summon the wind from within the nearby forest. And to harvest the misting rain with that wind. Focusing her vita out through her fingers, she channeled the air elements. Lifting her arms high, she dashed her hands in a swirl that plucked out a tail from the air, collected the rain and swirled it into a tornadic spin of energized magic.

  The tornado spun above the water, faster and faster, until the force of it began to open up the waters as if drilling down into rock. And when a column of open water had formed within the sea, Valor sent the tornado down, spinning, spiraling, mining deep, until she felt it connect with the boulder. Like a suctioned tentacle, the end of the tornado grasped the boulder and she commanded it to rise.

  Water splashed up over her body as the wind tunnel carried the rock high into the air. And in the next moment, Kelyn stepped onto the broken granite ledge beside her, dropping the frayed rope that tailed behind the boulder.

  With a sweep of her hand, she sent the boulder off into the sea and dismissed the tornado. A heavy fall of water that had been corralled into her weapon now released and beat upon their heads. Kelyn’s knees buckled. He collapsed and splayed onto the stone.

  And then all grew calm. Even the sky seemed to suddenly brighten, thanks to a thread of lingering sunlight. Valor looked over Kelyn’s body; ichor covered his face and had started to puddle below his head.

  “Dr. Bombay, this is not good!”

  She dropped to her knees beside him and pressed an ear to his chest. She didn’t feel his chest rise. That couldn’t be right. He’d stood next to her, had even smiled. He couldn’t be dead. Closer inspection saw the cuts on his face, from which all his ichor flowed. Had he lost too much? The man must have battled with the mermaid within the depths.

  Talk about a fickle kisser.

  Frantic, Valor clutched her hands before her as she scanned Kelyn’s inanimate body. The charms at his neck were still there, the mouse alicorn and the—whatever the thing was that only the Wicked could use. Did it connect him to something? She reached to touch the black circle, but then did not. Now was no time to get curious.

  But how to help him? Her healing magic wasn’t able to bring back life, not even lure life to remain in a dying body. She could fix boo-boos and even mend the occasional broken bone. But how to give a man back his breath?

  “CPR,” she muttered. “Yes, how did that go?”

  Years ago Mireio had convinced Valor to attend a CPR course with her. Said it would be a good skill to learn if it was ever needed at the brewery for a customer. Because they certainly couldn’t whip out the healing magic with a crowd of humans observing.

  Pressing her palms over Kelyn’s chest, she pumped once. Then again. Then a few times more rapidly. Bowing over his head, she tilted it back and, clamping her fingers over his nose, breathed into his mouth. Once, twice. Listened for breath. She repeated the sequence over and over, crying out to all the television doctors she had a habit of invoking when life pissed her off or challenged her.

  “By all the TV doctors and Dr. Bombay, I will save him. I can’t lose him. Not this guy. He’s the nicest man I know.”

  He was the only man who’d ever given her a chance when she least deserved one.

  Placing a palm over her other hand, she compressed his chest a few pulses. And this time, when she breathed into his mouth, she invoked all her powers of air magic and infused his system with her vita, her life. Conjuring a violet essence of vitality, she breathed that into him, blessed air that had originated from the universe, representing centuries and millennia of existence. Everyone breathed and walked in the life-giving elixir.

  Gasping, Valor pressed her hands to Kelyn’s chest again. This time when she pumped, her wrists weakened and her palms slipped from his wet chest. She was growing weak. Had expended too much magic. And...

  “No, gotta keep going.” Another breath escaped from her exhausted lungs. Valor lingered at Kelyn’s mouth, her lips brushing his. “Please...”

  A seabird soared overhead, cawing out a mournful cry. Rain spattered his eyelids, and Valor thought maybe she saw one of them wriggle...

  Kelyn choked up water. His body jerked and pulsed upon the wet stone. He groaned and
with a choking contortion, rolled and spat out more water to the side. “Oh...scales.”

  “Oh, yes, thank you!” Pulling him to lie on his back, Valor hugged him across the chest. His fingers grasped at her wet hair, but he didn’t move much more than that. “You’re alive. I’m so happy. I thought... No, I knew you’d survive. Blessed be!”

  “Valor,” he said as if in a prayer. “I’m not dead.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re lucky I remembered CPR. That came in handy more than I ever expected it would.”

  “You gave me your...breath.”

  She shrugged. “It was the least I could do. But know this. That is the last time I let you kiss a mermaid, buddy.”

  His chest bucked as he laughed and then the faery wrapped his arms across her back and hugged her tightly to him. “No more mermaids. Promise.”

  * * *

  Eyes closed, Kelyn lay on the wet, cold stone for a long time. The misty rain continued, and he didn’t care. He’d gone beyond soaked. So long as he was not strapped to a big rock and tossed in the ocean again? He was good.

  Valor’s heat snugged his side. She hadn’t said a thing after he closed his eyes. She understood he needed to restore, get back his meager strength and process what had occurred. He’d been dragged to the depths—so close to death—yet he knew Valor’s air magic was what had brought him to the surface.

  As well, the air from her lungs had ensured he did not die. She had literally given him a kiss of life.

  He also sensed that such rescue had fatigued her. Magic extracted a price each time it was used.

  But they’d done it. And now elation surged through him as if it were an electric current. He clasped Valor’s hand and kissed it.

  “You’re amazing,” she said. They both lay on the granite outcrop, looking up at the gray sky streaked with silver clouds and stitched with the flight of a dark bird soaring beneath the clouds. The moon held reign above the tree line somewhere behind them. “You feeling any better?”